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Audit emphasizes relieving congestion, tolling

The state should improve Interstate 5 through downtown Seattle and expand highway tolling if an experiment succeeds in King County, according to a performance audit report released today.

The state Auditor’s Office report, requested by the legislature, also called for a “commitment to reducing congestion.”

Increased coordination of traffic lights, more emphasis on carpools, transit and telecommuting and speeding up vehicle flow “using existing infrastructure and resources” were recommended in the report.

Taking those actions “could reduce hours of traffic delay by 15 percent to 20 percent saving the average commuter some 10 hours of delay each year and the region $300 million to $400 million in travel time and vehicle operating costs per year,” the report said.

It called for using a single Puget Sound area entity to plan congestion reduction and recommends the state or another entity “manage traffic congestion through a system of measurable performance objectives.”

The report was an analysis of the state Department of Transportation, done to examine the department’s efficiency and spending.

Among other things, the 226-page report said the state should use tolling on more highway lanes to cover costs “aggressively” and the legislature should help expand tolling “should the department’s high-occupancy toll lane pilot (project on state Route 167) be successful.”

A summary of recommendations did not name any candidates. The state this summer began charging $3 eastbound on the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and next year it will begin a four-year test of a high-occupancy toll lane system on 167 between Auburn and Renton.

The report summary did not detail how a single agency could tackle the region’s notorious congestion but it said the department “should make reducing congestion a primary goal” and that spending on new highways or other projects “should be measured, in part, based on how many hours of delay can be reduced for each million dollars of investment.”

Early this year a regional commission recommended setting up a single new entity to plan and finance road and transit projects in the Puget Sound region, one that would take over decisoins now made by state and local transit authorities. That proposal, being considered by the legislature, has drawn mixed responses, from supporters who think it would help expedite needed projects to critics who said existing agencies already coordinate with each other.

The performance audit called for completing the Puget Sound carpool lane network “with emphasis on the Interstate 5 corridor to Tacoma,” and suggested pursuing potenial improvements to Interstate 5 through downtown Seattle” as well. The summary did not list specific improvements.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.